


Kaleidoscope love

by EarthsickWithoutYou



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-12
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-02-01 03:54:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12696792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EarthsickWithoutYou/pseuds/EarthsickWithoutYou
Summary: A different version of the events in 3x03.  Instead of Nate, it is Mick who witnesses Amaya's sleep-walking problem and soon after takes the Zambesi hallucinogen with her.





	1. Part One

“Mornin’, Professor,” Mick grumbled, tipping his whiskey flask into his black coffee as Martin rolled his eyes.

“Really, Mr. Rory, it’s five of nine on a Wednesday,” Stein chided, sitting down across from his teammate and preparing to dig into his bowl of…what even was that, Mick pondered in disdain. Some kind of breakfast cereal based around the idea that a bunch of flavorless wheat guaranteed continued health. Rory shuddered, looking forward to his sugar-coated donut, and took a long, happy sip of coffee.

“Exactly,” he replied smoothly.

“Gah!” Martin exclaimed out of nowhere, leaping up from the table and staring upward. Mick leaned back in lazy unconcern, allowing his eyes to wander upward in half-piqued interest. But when he saw what was up there, he shot to his feet.

“Amaya,” He called, but she remained deep in the arms of slumber, her body positioned arachnid-like, an unnatural backbend. Her eyes were open, blue-glazed and feral, her totem’s powers shimmering around and through her, and she looked like a beautiful, deadly predator.

“Fascinating,” Stein murmured. “It would seem that Ms. Jiwe’s powers are manifesting beyond her control even when she is unconscious.”

“No kidding,” Mick replied. “Gideon,” He said, climbing on top of the table, “can you deliver some kind of low-level shock that won’t hurt Amaya but would make her let go of the ceiling for a second?”

“Indeed, Mr. Rory,” Gideon acquiesced readily, giving Amaya a gentle jolt. She fell gracefully, her powers releasing her from their grip, and even though it only took a moment, Mick had time to think that she did everything with grace. Then she was lying in his arms, eyelids fluttering, and she was warm and soft, fragrant and beguiling. What was that smell on her skin? He wondered, bewitched, easing them down to the floor. Instinctively, she nestled closer against his chest. Her scent was like the tropical flower blossoms he’d seen in Aruba, Mick decided.

Aloud, he said, “Let’s get her to the med bay,” and carried Amaya down the corridor to lay her with precise carefulness on the first cot he came to. 

“Can we wake her?” Mick asked, leaning down to examine Amaya’s now-peaceful face, feeling her forehead. She was flushed, but not feverish.

“I think it would be best if we do not disturb her slumber,” Stein advised, his words coming slow as he took in the surprising sight of Mick’s tender conduct towards Amaya. A new respect came into his tone as he laid a gentle hand on Mick’s arm and added, “Ms. Jiwe will be fine, Mr. Rory. We will all help her to work through this.”

“Thanks, Prof,” Mick muttered distractedly, sinking down into the chair beside Amaya. He would be there, watching over her, until she woke.

“Mick?” Amaya asked a couple of hours later. Mick whipped off his reading glasses, laying a thick novel aside and rushing to her side.

“The Professor and I caught you sleep-spidering on the mess hall ceiling,” he recapped. “You okay now?”

Amaya nodded, sitting up and resting a hand on her forehead. “I wish I could say that surprised me. But this has been happening for weeks. I have to find some way to get control over myself again, before I hurt someone!” Terror of herself was written across her face, and it pained Mick. He hated to see her in any discomfort whatsoever, never mind such distress.

“Hey, it’s okay,” He soothed. He reached out to take her hand, then pulled his hand back nervously in case it was unwanted. Before the motion could run its full course, Amaya grabbed his retreating fingers and clutched them, drawing him closer. 

“What if it’s not?” She whispered fiercely. He wrapped an arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder trustingly, like she needed him somehow. And just like that, his heart was so full that he thought it would explode.

“Did any of your ancestors who used the totem ever go through something like this?” Mick asked thoughtfully.

“I’m not sure, but I’ve been meaning to check out our family archives in Gideon’s records, see if I can learn more about any such incidents,” Amaya explained. She slid from under his arm and placed her hand in his. He looked down at their joined fingers in surprise. “If I’m going to calm down and get a handle on this, I’d say there’s no time like the present. Are you coming?”

****************************************************************************************************

Amaya knew it was the utter panic of the situation that had made her walls come down so entirely around Mick. Gun-shy about romance in general after her relationship with Nathaniel had turned out to be a painful mistake, she’d decided internally to try and ignore the attraction she felt to Mick. Soon after returning to the Wave Rider, she’d noticed that lately, he had grown into himself, evolving towards a more focused and sensitive team member — not that he would have admitted the latter if she’d mentioned it. 

He’d been enticing enough when he was rougher and grumpier, but now that his devil-may-care, smirking crook’s persona was melded with a kinder and more attentive tendency, it was all Amaya could do to drag her eyes from him. Mick had gone from being the kind of bad boy who was simply too undependable and destructive for her to ever admit her infatuation with him, to the sort of bad boy you could actually take home to meet your family. To the sort of man, in fact, that could inspire her with far more than mere infatuation. 

So when she’d seen him there in the med bay, waiting so patiently for her to awaken, watching over her without trying to conceal his motives by way of gruff and dismissive excuses, she had simply melted. Her body was exhausted from the totem’s power repeatedly defeating her will-power and asserting its own manifestations despite the consequences. Her emotions were frail from the sensation of having their darkest impulses seized upon as an excuse for her powers to lash out and threaten or hurt others around her. And her mind was worry-numb, far too much so to access the artist formerly known as common sense. 

This was the best excuse she could offer herself for the fact that she was currently walking to the library with Mick’s hand in hers, as if they had been dating for months, perfectly natural. His hand was strong and warm, his smile sweet and sly, despite the confusion in his eyes. Mick’s touch had calmed Amaya’s nerves more effectively than anything else she’d tried so far. 

When they arrived at the library, she asked Gideon to pull up all of the files on her village and her family’s history, especially any records regarding the totem. She and Mick spent most of the afternoon poring over the information, until she finally stumbled upon a story she had never read before, regarding a great-aunt of hers who had also worn the totem.

She sat up from a half-reclined position, withdrawing the pen from her mouth and looking down at her hastily scribbled notes in fascination. “This _could_ work,” she determined, deep in thought, “But the risk is substantial.”

“No risk, no reward,” Mick replied, taking her notebook from her hands to look over what she’d jotted down. “Is this a drug that your auntie used to figure out her mystical animal power mojo?” 

“It is indeed,” Amaya confirmed, smiling at the private thought that he needed to stop wearing those reading glasses before she jumped into his lap and kissed the living daylights out of him. He was just too sexy for words.

“So, we get to trip out. Fantastic,” He said gleefully, rubbing his hands together.

“I don’t know if you want to come along on this journey with me, Mick. It may not actually be very much fun. The effects of this drug are intense and the feeling of our bonding within the same experience of taking it would be…” Amaya pressed her lips together, suddenly realizing that the only word to fit the context was “intimate,” and that actually voicing it was a step too far. “Uh…” She stalled awkwardly, averting her eyes from his intrigued look.

“…Enlightening?” Mick guessed with a knowing smile. _please don’t be guessing my thoughts right now,_ Amaya begged him silently. His expression turned serious and he leaned closer across the desk. “Look, I’m not letting you go through this alone — unless that’s really what you want. If you’re scared or worried about what you’re going to find out, I’ll be right there with you facing it too.”

“Did anyone ever tell you that you’re sweet, Mick Rory?” Amaya asked, and he shook his head dismissively.

“Shhh!” He warned, putting a finger to his lips. 

“I’ll never tell,” She promised teasingly.

Gideon was able to reproduce the hallucinogen they needed quite speedily, and it helped that the rest of the team was wrapped up in a mission and too busy to interject their comments or volunteer unnecessary assistance. Sitting here beside Mick, placing the tablet containing the drug on her tongue, Amaya felt this was the only version of this risky endeavor that would have felt palatable and safe.

“Down the rabbit hole,” Mick grinned, popping his own tablet in and closing his eyes.

“It may take a few minutes to go into—” Amaya began, but her words were cut off when the library was quickly replaced by her village, not as it was now, but as it was decades ago, when her great aunt was the same age she was currently. The naturally gorgeous environment of her homeland was enhanced by the vivid colors imbued by the drug’s effect on her brain.

“Effect,” She finished, doing a double-take. “Wow,” she murmured in amazement. She stepped backward without really thinking, as if this illusion would fall away from her, but this was no flimsy apparition and it held tightly to her perceptive abilities.

Her hand brushed against Mick’s and she looked over in surprise to see him standing beside her, scanning the scene with his mouth hanging open. “No way,” he said, “This is one seriously good trip.” Amaya grinned and nudged him.

“Let’s go and explore this place!” She suggested, her heart expanding like a balloon with the notion of finding some answers to her destiny along the way.

“You lead the way,” Mick agreed invitingly, still looking everywhere around him like he’d just crash-landed in Oz. The fresh, bright green grass was dotted with huts, villagers going to and fro carrying jugs of water and baskets of food while others sewed clothing or wove the baskets that would be used in future times. The weather was hot but not oppressive, and in the distance, Amaya could hear the happy splashes and cries of the children who’d gone swimming that day. She had only been away for a few days, but she had truly missed this place.

“Mick Rory,” Amaya called blissfully. She stretched her arms out, gazing up at the startlingly turquoise sky and taking a spin around. “Welcome to Zambesi!”


	2. Part 2

Mick tried to hold himself upright and remain steady, but it was a challenge. He didn’t have any magical amulet to give him the strength required to maintain focus under the thrall of the hallucinogen, only his will-power. He was torn between the instinct to sink into the grass and examine each individual blade — which for some reason promised to reveal some previously unfathomable revelation — the very distinct temptation to faint, and the more beguiling sensation of Amaya’s hand in his own. She anchored him as she trained her eyes on the village huts ahead, the people wandering around in a moving snapshot of Zambesi life. Did _they_ know this was a vision? Mick blinked, more than a little dizzy. 

“You okay?” Amaya asked, pausing in concern. She pressed a hand to his damp forehead, making note of his dazed expression and fast, fluttery breaths. Mick grinned.

“That’s one hell of a drug,” he enthused, staring at her.

“What does that look mean?” Amaya asked, much more lucid than he was.

Mick took in the sight of her standing there, hair swept into a colorful scarf, her dress so elegant and regal, clearly defining her as at home and belonging to this soulful place, this mystical experience that was her birthright. “You’re a princess,” Mick managed to say, somehow putting his thoughts into a synopsis that felt clumsy but accurate. She smiled softly and blushed a little, looking away from his almost worshipful gaze as if she’d stared too long into the sun. 

“No,” Amaya tried to object, “I’m just—”

“I love you,” Mick continued, blind to all risk in making the statement. Life was singing through his veins, emotion surging, wild and insatiable. “Huh. I don’t think I usually say that out loud.” He laughed and added, “I’m going to be mad at me when I wake up from this!”

Amaya was staring at him like he had five heads, so Mick felt his own face to make sure this was not the case, then breathed a sigh of relief. Amaya laid a hand against his cheek as her lips parted to reply, but then they were interrupted.

“My dear one,” A lovely young woman who strongly resembled Amaya came striding up to meet them, smiling knowingly at Mick’s woozy expression and Amaya’s thunderstruck one.

“You must be her Auntie,” Mick guessed cheerfully. 

“I am indeed,” the woman replied, “You know, Amaya, it is quite unusual for someone else to be able to enter this vision with you. The bond between yourself and this man must be incredibly strong in order for this to be possible.”  
“I’m beginning to realize just how strong it is,” Amaya acknowledged, then folded her aunt into a warm embrace. “I am so happy to see you. I have so many questions.”

“I know of your recent struggle, I can feel it, as well as your anxieties,” her aunt answered soothingly, patting Amaya’s cheek. “But first, my dear, have this man go and lie down in the grass and watch the clouds drifting by. It’s the best thing for him in his current state.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Mick slurred, then simply collapsed into the soft grass and sighed in relief.

“Thank you, Mick,” Amaya whispered, leaning down to kiss his forehead. 

Mick squinted up at her. “Is the sky supposed to be spinning around like that?”

“Yes,” she assured him, gripping his hand for a beat before following her aunt back to the village.

*******************************************************************************

The next thing Mick knew, he was waking up in the Wave Rider med bay, his muscles achy and heavy, feeling like he had a pretty bad hangover, even by his standards. 

“Hey,” Amaya said softly, rising from a chair beside his cot and leaning over him in concern. “How are you feeling?”

“How long’ve you been sitting there?” he asked, but she shook her head.

“I asked my question first.” Clad in a black t-shirt and matching jeans, her hair loose and wavy around her shoulders, Amaya looked relaxed and composed, her recent worries absent from her coy smile.

“Fair enough,” Mick replied, trying to sit up. Mistake. His head slammed back down onto the pillow immediately thereafter. Amaya laid a hand on his chest.

“I feel like I just came off a weeklong bender, but it was totally worth it,” he reasoned gruffly, wincing slightly at the combination headache and dehydration took their toll.

“Here, take these,” Amaya instructed affectionately, passing him two aspirins and a tall glass of water.

“You read my mind,” Mick said delightedly, since these items looked about as appealing to him as a bucket of fried chicken and a six-pack of beer usually did. He swallowed the medicine, then downed the whole glass of water, handing it back to Amaya and nestling back down to rest.

“No mind-reading required, I just had Gideon run a check-up on you,” she explained.

“Oh, really?” Mick asked, smirking flirtatiously. “So how long have you been here? Come on, I answered your question.”

“A while,” Amaya replied slyly. 

“And how did the rest of your vision go?” As he asked the question, Mick started to remember some of his own experience. Then he remembered everything he had said to Amaya and swallowed hard, embarrassed. Wondering how seriously she’d taken it. 

It was very serious to Mick, but he didn’t want her knowing that if he was alone in his feelings.

“My aunt reassured me. She told me that events and people are coming into my life that will show me the purpose of what I’ve gone through, and how to shape my experiences, even the more forceful nature of my powers of late, into what is ultimately…” She beamed with the relieved confidence of revelation. “My destiny.”

“Destiny, huh? That’s pretty heavy stuff.” He raised his eyebrows, watching her, still trying to decide how to act if she brought up his profession of love. He was also fairly certain he had called her a princess. _Oh, no,_ Mick worried.

“Not so heavy when I have someone to face it with me,” Amaya reasoned, sitting on the side of his cot. She rested a hand on his chest and gazed at him with another kind of new understanding sparkling in her eyes. “Mick, what you said when we were, well, tripping…”

“Uhhhh, I’m sorry about that,” Mick back-peddled furiously, “I don’t know what got into me.”

Amaya laughed softly and leaned down to kiss his lips, a tentative brush at first, then more deliberate, their mouths fading blissfully into an exploration of each other. The kisses lingered and opened up into yet more kisses, Mick’s hands resting on Amaya’s back as she finally let out a small moan. “Hmm,” She murmured, parting from him long enough to assess his expression. “Are you sure you want to stick with that story? You told me you love me for no particular reason? Was it just the drugs talking, Mick?”

“Does it feel that way to you?” Mick countered, his fingers wandering down her body, tracing the outer lines of her figure, the curve of the sides of her breasts under her t-shirt, her slender waist, where his touch came to rest. Her eyes drifted shut and she shivered pleasantly.

“Not remotely,” she replied, then laid down next to him; half on top of him, truth be told. Although it was necessitated by the cramped amount of room available on the cot, she wasn’t sorry that their thighs were pressed together, her leg resting easily on his.  


“I think I’ve always loved you too, right from the start, when we met. When we first worked more closely together, then I really knew but…” She bit her lip reflectively. “I was afraid.”

Mick nodded. “Heywood’s safe. I’m not.” His warm blue gaze wasn’t accusatory; it was actually downright sympathetic. His smile told her he was far too overjoyed that she loved him to care that she’d tried to run from those feelings, that he understood why that would be.

“I was wrong about you, Mick. I thought you were dangerous and volatile, but there’s so much more to you. I was wrong not to trust my instincts, not to trust _myself._ That’s been my problem all along, I could never just be honest with myself or believe that I could make the right moves, the right choices. Maybe if I hadn’t bottled everything up, my powers wouldn’t have exploded out of my control. If I’m ever going to refine my self-control,” she added, touching her totem, “I must be comfortable in my own skin, able to admit what I want and unafraid of complications.”

“I’m full of those,” Mick warned, drawing the last word out as he so often did, his gruff voice arousing her. Everything about him formed a perfectly imperfect whole, a man who had won her heart with his hidden goodness, the hero trying to fight through the pride and the pain. He was gorgeous, damaged and precious, he was hers, and she wanted to be his.

“Beautiful complications,” Amaya clarified, kissing him again. “You’re everything I want.” He gaped at her, momentarily struck silent. His eyes wondered, “how can that be true?”

“I’m a mess,” Mick fretted, running his fingers through her hair.

“Who isn’t? I know _I_ certainly am. We’re legends. It kind of goes with the territory, don’t you think?” She relaxed her body against him, melting happily, and laid her head against his chest. His heartbeat was strong and fast. She slipped a hand under his grey henley and stroked his skin, feeling the scars that rippled the flesh above that heart. 

“That feels so good,” Mick breathed, and she continued to caress him, letting her hand stay at his side under the shirt. The feeling was so warm and enticing, seductively soothing. 

“So do you,” Amaya said quietly, then pulled the thin sheet up around them. “You need rest now, and plenty more of it. Everyone else is off on mission. We have this time to breathe, so take it. Later, there will be plenty of time for…anything else we feel like getting up to.”

Mick’s lips curved in a smile that contained more genuine peace and hopefulness than she’d ever seen in him before…but the heat of his embrace and the way his firm, powerful body felt beneath her made Amaya well aware that he was also pondering “anything else” they felt like getting up to later.  


“We’ve got time,” Mick murmured as he let drowsiness pull him back under.

“We’ve got time,” Amaya echoed serenely, surrendering to dreams without fear of what they, or the future of her reality, would bring.


End file.
